IAG sent a team of five to ICE Barcelona in 2026, where another record-breaking event was buoyed by a strong Asian presence.
The world’s largest annual gaming industry trade show, ICE, returned to Barcelona in January where it proceeded to set a whole new set of records in just its second year in the Catalan city.
While Barcelona’s usual sunny weather was replaced this time around by bucketing rain, spirits inside Fira Barcelona Gran Via were far from dampened, with over 600 exhibitors and around 65,000 attendees filling the venue’s expansive halls. The addition of an extra exhibition hall also helped push total exhibition space to around 143,000 square meters.
Marketed as “The place the world of gaming goes to do business”, there was also a tidy Asian contingent in attendance this year – highlighted by the presence of Philippines gaming regulator PAGCOR.
Flanked by around a dozen colleagues, PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco delivered a keynote speech on Day 2 of the World Regulatory Briefing before speaking with local media about his administration’s significant achievements in strengthening his country’s gaming industry.
IAG was honored to have Chairman Tengco attend a special evening drinks we hosted for invited guests and later caught up with him for an exclusive interview on the show floor where he provided more targeted insights into PAGCOR’s latest regulatory actions.
Also speaking at ICE Barcelona in 2026 was Bally’s Corp chair Soo Kim, notable in the Asia-Pacific region for his recent takeover of Australia’s Star Entertainment Group. Kim was appointed Star chairman just a few weeks before travelling to Barcelona for ICE.
In a fascinating fireside chat on the opening morning, Kim described the actions of Star’s caretaker management team as “the greatest bit of mismanagement I’ve ever seen” but also revealed he views the challenge of reversing Star’s fortunes as “the greatest opportunity in the world.
“I mean, it’s not even close when you think about the replacement value of those [Sydney and Brisbane] assets,” he said.
“If you think about our 19 casinos, we’ve only built one of them, so most of those casinos we have picked up from other folks through some distressed sales, abandonments and whatnot. And we’ve turned them around. This is really what we do.
“[Star is] a generational opportunity, period.”
IAG, alongside its sister brands CDC Gaming and Complete iGaming, sent a combined crew of five people to ICE Barcelona in 2026 and will be back again in early 2027 for what we’re reliably told will be an even bigger version of ICE, with plans to add yet another hall of exhibitors. Proof that boundaries exist to be blurred.
